


Born of Ice and Legends

by beesandoreos



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: And Loki Loves Sour Gummy Worms, Attempt at Humor, Awesome Baby Tooth, F/M, Hurt Everyone Really, Hurt Jack, Hurt Loki, Hurt Steve, Hurt Thor, Hurt/Comfort, Jack Doesn't Care About Your Opinion, Jack Was Lost, Jack being Jack, Jack is a Little Shit, Loki Does What He Wants, Loki and Thor are Actually Really Good Brothers, M/M, Oblivious Thor, She's Amazing, Steve is Confused, Thor Loves Pop-Tarts, Thor is a puppy, Until He Was Found, seriously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-03-31 13:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3979033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beesandoreos/pseuds/beesandoreos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack was born of Ice. He rose from a frozen pond under the light of a full moon. However, you are made just as much by your family as by your birth. And Jack's family is the stuff of Legends.</p>
<p>(Or, Jack was lonely, until he wasn't; Loki didn't mean for this to happen, but he doesn't mind all that much; Thor is just being himself; And Steve wants to know why these things keep happening to him.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Found

**Author's Note:**

> Hey. This is my first post here, and this is all very exciting. I hope you like it.

There is a lake. This lake is like just about every other lake out there in just about every way possible. It is not too very deep, nor is it very big. It resides in the small town of Burgress, and it doesn’t even have a name. The only notable thing about it, is that every winter, the children like to skate on it. And even that isn’t very special at all.

And this little lake has never had anything particularly extraordinary happen on its banks. That is, it hadn’t. In fact, it was only one night when people noted, holding their hands up to shield from the light, that the moon was particularly bright, that anything worth noticing happened at all.

   

* * *

A man walked through the forest. He knew there was a small village not far from here, but he had no reason to travel there, and did not possess any desire to do so. It was highly unlikely that there would be anything to interest him there. Humans had never had much to note in the first place, and that had not changed in the time that had passed since he had last visited this realm. One could only hope that, sometime in the future, they would hold more of an interest for him.

But, for now he was content to stroll through this forest, examining native flora and fauna. He had always been interested in animals; those here and elsewhere. And the forests of this place held the added advantage of driving away the humans.

As such, the last thing he expected to find was a boy sitting in the middle of a frozen pond. He had a long staff cradled in the crook of his arms, and was sobbing into bent knees. He couldn’t have been any older than fifteen, and was quite small, with white hair and pale skin. That was a bit strange, as he had been under the impression that only the elderly of this realm were possessed of white hair. What truly struck him, however, was his lack of footwear. While he had never been particularly bothered by the cold, he was well aware that it was not the case for others, and it was well below freezing.

The boy didn’t look up when he walked to the pond. He was slightly offended. Did he not think him sufficiently impressive? He cleared his throat, wanting to attract his attention. This, however, proved ineffective as well, and garnered even more annoyance on his part.

“Child. Are you injured in any way?” He asked, wondering at what was happening here.

At that, the boy looked up, revealing startling ice blue eyes set in an almost child-like face. Tears coated his face in a most undignified manner, and he was tempted to depart right then.    

The boy looked at him for a long while, then sighed in a resigned manner and looked down at the ice. “I don’t even know why I bother. You can’t see me… Just like everybody else.”

He raised an eyebrow, “You are seen by me, child.”

The boy’s eyes widened and he gasped, “You- you can see me?”

“Was that not what I just said?”

The boy gasped again and flung himself at him. The boy wrapped himself around the man, limbs going everywhere and squeezing him tightly. His eyes widened and he grunted on impact. He had definitely not expected this. The boy was rubbing his wet face against his person and it made him most uncomfortable.    He pried at the boy’s arms, finding that he had surprising strength for one so small, “Remove yourself from me child!”

He laughed and unwrapped his body from his, “Sorry. It’s just… It’s been so long.”

His brows furrowed, “Since what, child?”

The smile dropped off his face, “Nothing.”

He knew that he was lying. It was fairly obvious. Even for one that wasn’t so trained as him. He bet even his brother would have been able to tell.

“Do not lie to me child. It is not within your best interests.” He said as threateningly as possible. Which in his not-so-humble opinion, was quite menacing.

The boy, however, was unaffected. He frowned at him momentarily, but then a smile slipped back onto his face. The man thought that he seemed overly happy in a highly disconcerting way.

The boy laughed, pushing his silvery white hair out of his face with a hand, composure well on it’s way to being regained. “I’ll lie when I want to! And it’s none of your business anyways. And don’t call me child. I’m older than you.”

He raised an eyebrow. He seriously doubted that. He was very, very old. He simply did not look it. He said so to the strange child.

He only laughed again. That was starting to seriously irritate him. Then he did something that surprised him. And seeing as that was a very hard thing to do, what he did was quite shocking. The did a small flip from his position on the ice, and stayed in the air. He didn’t fall or even go any closer to the ice at all. He simply hovered there, hair and cloak shuddering in a wind that affected nothing else but him.

He had to fight to keep his jaw from falling open. He had been under the impression that none of the natives of this realm could perform magic. However, it seemed that many of his impressions were being disproved that night.

After a mental debate that probably took a few seconds to anyone else, but seemed like hours to him, he had decided what he was going to do. He had to take the boy home. He was obviously either not human, or possessed of enhancements from another realm. That much was clear to him. Humans did many, many things. Most of them stupid. But they did not float. That decided, he set out a plan. It was very much something his brother would do. This, he was not proud of. But he had only been in contact with this boy for a few minutes and he was sure that he would be unlikely to come without a struggle. those with any sort of power were always that way. This left him with very few options, and this seemed to be the least destructive of them all.

He quickly muttered a spell under his breath, hoping that this didn’t, as some humans were beginning to say, blow up in his face.

He watched as the boys eyelids drooped and he seemed to deflate. He fell asleep in mid- air, and the boy’s personal air currents lay him down gently on the ice He wondered at that, but filed it away for later thinking. He had no time to be wondering after useless things now. No matter how many spells he put on him, the boy wouldn’t sleep forever. He had to move quickly.

He moved forward and scooped up the boy, finding him to be very light. He had partially expected this, owing to how small the boy was. However, the boy was much lighter than he had anticipated. He nearly threw him in the air, having overestimated how much force he would need. He turned and headed back the way he came. He knew it wouldn’t be too hard to find the place where he had arrived. It left a fairly obvious footprint when he traveled anywhere outside of his realm. And something that big did not simply disappear.

He quickly found it, stepping into a large clearing, taken up by a large, branching design that marked the Bi-frost portal.

He stood in the middle of it, the boy in his arms , and yelled at the sky, knowing Heimdall could hear him. “Heimdall! Open the Bifrost! It is I, Loki!” A bright, spinning blue light engulfed him, sending him flying back towards his home; Asgard.


	2. A Failure of Comunication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Truly, this was one of the stranger situations Jack had ever found himself in. And he had had snow goblins try to push him off cliffs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy. So second chapter! Yay! This was hard. The next one is mostly written, so hopefully it won't take as long to get out. Enjoy!

When Jack opened his eyes, he saw a ceiling. Now, this wouldn’t be unusual in normal circumstances. Waking up and seeing a ceiling was perfectly normal for many people, he was sure. But for Jack, who was used to waking up to either a starry strewn sky, or the branches of some tree, it was a very unnerving experience. It was also very disorienting. Because Jack, who had never really had anyone to move him, had always woken up in the same place he had fallen asleep in. All in all it was a very strange experience.

In fact, the last bit of life that had occurred had all been really strange. First there was that very interestingly dressed man, whom he had a very nice conversations with. Never mind that the conversation had mostly consisted of him throwing himself on the man in a way that he refused to acknowledge as anything but manly. The whole fainting spell in the middle of it was something different. Really, it was strange that he was feeling like he needed to sleep at all. He had never actually felt the need to sleep. Sure, he slept. But that was more to pass a few hours of his lonely time. It was better than just sitting there and feeling sorry for himself.

Jack sat up, ruffling his hair. He was lying in the middle of a large bed. Suddenly, the breath whooshed out of him; he couldn’t see his staff anywhere! He glanced frantically around him, letting out a sigh of relief when he spotted it, propped up against the bed. He leaned over and grabbed it, thankful that it was close. The familiar sensation of tingling rushed over him when he touched it, and he took comfort in the sensation.

Staff found, he allowed himself to be swept away in the marvel that he was in a BED! And actual Bed! He had imagined what one of these would feel like. He had never felt right lying down in one of the beds of the villagers. It sort of felt like he was trespassing. Like he didn’t belong on something so… nice.

Jack sighed and scooted over to the edge of the bed, swinging his legs over. He received another shock when the wind swirled around his feet as he was disentangling them from the blankets. The wind felt different. It was still the wind. It still had that same comforting presence. But it was like it was a different wind. Like having your best friend replaced by their twin who was also your best friend, but wasn’t the same person as your other best friend. It was a rather odd sensation.

He had a small, completely non-verbal, conversation with this Wind and found that it was a different Wind. It was still his friend - the Wind was always his friend – but it was not the same one as the Wind he had spent the last thirty years with. From what he gathered, this Wind was the Wind of a different Realm. Whatever that was. Also, he got the sense that this Wind was male. Different from the other Wind, whom he had always gotten the distinct impression was female.  

He walked around the large room, inspecting it for any clues as to where he was. He was relatively sure that he was in some sort of supernatural place. Mostly because the entire thing looked like a combination between the color gold and a storybook palace.

Jack sighed and walked over to the door, but when he held out a hand to push it open, it swung open without him even brushing it. Jack stood there for several ridged seconds, waiting for something momentous to happen.  When something failed to materialize behind him, he took a tentative look out the door. When he walked out, he saw that there was a rather startled looking man standing outside the door. He was dressed in the same strange way as the green-eyed man. He assumed that he was a guard. For a second he thought he could see him too, because the guard stared right at the place Jack was standing. But then he shook his head and grunted, muttering about shorter shifts. Jack felt his shoulders drop in disappointment. He was used to not being seen. But he had hoped… for just a second..

Jack shook his head, as if the movement would dispel his thoughts. He huffed out a breath and walked down the hallway. The entire place was sculpted and gilded in a strange way that made everything seem to shine. It was very pretty, if a bit odd. He was sure that some extensive work had gone into everything in this building, and it made him feel as if he was trespassing. Like he wasn’t supposed to be in any place so polished.

He alternated between walking and floating. He often preferred floating to walking, if only because he was used to the rough floor of some sort of forest, and he hated shoes with a burning passion. He dragged his staff along the floor behind him, leaving a trail of ice and frost. It wasn’t enough to hurt someone. Maybe cause some very amusing accidents but that was it.

He peeked around the edge of a wall where the hallway came to an end. He felt his jaw drop in amazement. The room he had just stepped into was huge, with magnificent, sweeping ceilings and beautiful chapel windows. It was tiled, except for a strip down the middle where a glistening carpet led up a set of gilded stairs to a massive throne. There was barely anyone in it. Just two people. One was an old man with a golden eye patch who was sitting on the giant throne with an air of royalty about him. He was dressed in the same odd way as the Green eyed man and the guard. The other was… “Hey!”

Jack covered his mouth after his outburst, hitting himself in the face with his staff. The pain momentarily distracted him from the presence of the Green eyed man in the room. He pulled his hands away from his face, and rubbed dejectedly at his eye, cursing his own clumsiness. When Jack looked up again, the Green eyed man was looming over him, a very intimidating glare on his face.

Jack yelped and jumped, swinging his staff around at the man. The Green Man reeled back clutching his nose. He glared at Jack in a way that made him want to cower and hide.

Jack chuckled weakly, “Sorry.”

The Man only lifted an eyebrow at Jack, and Jack, feeling rather put out, froze his feet to the ground.

The Man’s glare intensified and Jack gave a nervous laugh, edging around him and into the room behind him. He wanted to keep this man in sight at all times. Retribution seemed to be a very real option and was terrifying to contemplate. Though he really felt that he was the one that deserved revenge in this situation, seeing as the man had just kidnapped him out of nowhere. But hey, who was he to judge?

The Green eyed man followed him with his eyes, watching him with an intensity that unsettled Jack on multiple levels. Eventually, when Jack was about 10 feet away from him, the Man muttered a few words, and Jack’s ice melted in the blink of an eye. Jack felt his mouth drop open in surprise.

The Man walked forward, grabbing Jack’s arm and dragging him over the momentous throne.

“This, Father, is the boy I was telling you about.” The Green eyed man had a smooth, cultured voice, that was tinged with annoyance as he said, “The insolent brat that just froze me to the floor.”

The older man - Jack decided to call him King - raised an eyebrow, “Loki. Have you taken leave of your senses? There is nothing there.”

The Green eyed man’s (Loki, apparently. Weird name) face twisted in confusion. He glanced at Jack and back at King,  his eyes tightening slightly.

Jack sighed. He had been holding out the hope that other people would be able to see him like the Green eyed man -Loki- was able to, but apparently not. He looked up at Loki, “He can’t see me. You have to believe in me to see me. You must believe.”

Loki just stood there for a second, nothing showing on his face. For a couple of seconds, Jack worried for the immediate future of his bodily health. But then he turned to King again, “Father. If the child is to be believed, then you must believe in his existence to see him..”

King frowned for a second, before saying, “My son, I sincerely hope this is not some elaborate hoax.”

Loki scoffs, “When have you ever known me to jest?”

Jack lost track of the conversation somewhere after that. He watched King’s face for a bit. The eye patch looked really painful. It was sort of like it was fused to his face. He wondered what could happened to him. Really, this whole situation was father odd. In truth, Jack was just waiting for something to jump out and consume  his soul. Nothing had tried to kill him yet, so he counted it as a win. He had only been around for about thirty years and he’s had six attempts on his life so far. Snow goblins were really too stupid to survive. He wasn’t sure how so many of them were still around at this point to try to kill him, especially with such frequency.  Maybe there just weren’t many other spirits around to put them out of their misery-

Jack startled out of his internal ramble when a weird tingle started in the small of his back and traveled down to the soles of his feet. He felt a warmth pool in his chest and he rubbed a hand against it absently, wondering at the feeling.

He looked up just as King opened his eyes and stared at him. Jack gaped back at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to look away and continue his conversation with Loki. When King only continued to stare at him, Jack suddenly felt rather weak in the knees and stumbled back in shock. He had had this vague idea of being seen forming in the back of his mind. Something that had been started by Loki being able to see him. But this, the presence of a second person who could see him, drove the idea home. It hit him with such force that he felt like he might faint from the shock of it. That, or start crying.

    When both of those things failed to happen, Jack whispered out a shocked, “You can see me?”

    King nodded, seeming to shake of any meager air of surprise that may have clung to him, “I see you Child.”

    Jack, trying to decide if he should cry or laugh, raised his hands to his mouth and closed his eyes, doing a little bit of both.

    After a while, someone cleared their throat and Jack opened decidedly misty eyes. Both Loki and King were looking at him in an expectant manner. Jack just stood there for a moment, feeling increasingly  embarrassed about his apparent breakdown. The tension in the room continued to build.

Jack will be the first to admit that he isn’t very good with people situations. Not having anyone to talk to for thirty years will do that to a person. Because of this, Jack will completely deny any conscious control over the snow that begins to fall from the ceiling. Really.

What truly surprised him though, was when King threw back his head and laughed. Jack took a step back, startled by the sound. For the longest time, the only laughter he had heard was his own, and even that was half-hearted. It was… nice. In a way.

When King finished, he looked back down at Jack, and said, ”I am Odin, Child. King of Asgard. Who are you?”

Jack stood there ,unmoving, for a long time. The silence in the room seemed to stretch and bend, morphing into something my heavier and unpleasant. It was strange, but he really didn’t want to say his name. The only time he had ever heard it aloud was from the Moon, the night he had risen from the lake. It felt as if he would be revealing himself; laying himself bare and letting someone else inspect him.

Finally, he said, “Jack. Jack Frost.”

Odin nodded, sitting back in his chair, “From what realm do you hail, Jack Frost?”

Before Jack could express any level of confusion, mainly about what a realm was, Loki stepped in front of him, saying, “I found him in Midgard, Father. On a lake.”

“It there a place, then, for those of your make on Midgard?” Odin asked this with a measure of trepidation coloring his voice. As if he is not sure how to phrase the question.

Jack frowned, and tapped his staff on the ground, “I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

Odin frowned back at him, saying, “Where do you return to if not with your own kind?”

At that Jack finally understood. He laughed and waved his staff around, “Oh. Here and there. Wherever the wind takes me, you know?”

A thoughtful expression stole over Odin’s face. Jack wondered for a moment if this is the part where they realize they hate him for some unspecified reason and decide to kill him. He hefted his staff up to his chest, trying to make himself feel some semblance of security.

After a while, Odin looks down at Jack and asks, “Do you have no home to return to?”

Jack dropped his hand down, and looked back at Odin, confused again, “Not really. I just kinda,” at this point Jack fails around for a bit, before saying, “go. Wherever I’m needed.”

Odin’s frown deepens and he rubs a hand over his face in a tired sort of way. He glances at Jack several times and then at Loki. Jack feels the uneasiness beginning to creep up his spine again and he looks around the room, trying to distract himself from the growing tension in the room. He was just about to take off to investigate something strange he thinks might be lodged in one of the upper corners of the room, when Odin cleared his throat and Jack snapped back to paying attention.

Odin cleared his throat one more time, and said, “You are welcome to stay here if you wish, Jack. The room you found yourself in today will remain prepared for you.”

Loki shifted and snapped out, “Father-” before Odin cut him off with a look. Jack ignored him, too caught up in the offer.

Jack gaped at Odin for a while, before he choked out, “I can… stay? Here?”

When Odin nodded, Jack flailed again, falling backwards and landing on his ass. He crossed his legs and stared at his hands, trying to process. When he finally looked up at Odin again, He could feel the way his eyes had misted over and the frost crawling out across the floor away from him.

“Really?” He whispered it, not sure if he actually wanted an answer.

Odin nodded and Jack let out a choked noise, unsure what to do with himself in that moment.

Jack sort of ran away after that. He made increasingly feeble excuses about having to get back to the winter. Make sure there were no new ice ages and all that. Thankfully, they let him go with relative ease and before he knew it, he was back in the middle of his lake, fervently wishing it wasn’t all a dream.

* * *

    After that, Jack came around Asgard quite a bit. It had been explained to him that he only had to find a large enough empty space and call out for Heimdal to open the Bifrost and he would bring him to Asgard. It had taken Jack a while to wrap his head completely around the whole, ‘Different Realms and magical portals’ thing, but he had eventually just figured that he was an immortal Ice Spirit, so it stood to reason that there would be other weird things in the universe besides him.

    Jack had gone back to earth soon after first meeting Odin. He had wanted some time to try and come to grips to the idea that there were other people he could talk to. He spent a week spreading snow and making kids laugh. He froze a couple people to trees and made sure that his lake was frozen over. When he felt ready enough for it, he went to Antarctica and stood in the middle of an empty snowfield.

Jack stood awkwardly, sinking a little into the snow drifts. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous. The idea that there were other powerful beings who could open giant portals in the sky to take him to other realms was more than a little bit terrifying. Jack’s usual solution to anything new was to fling ice at it and get the hell away. He had a feeling that would not work in this situation.

He also felt a bit stupid. Just the idea of yelling at the sky for a guy that he had only met once to magically transport him to another realm made him uncomfortable. He had been standing there for about five minutes, just trying to breath and work up the courage to do it.

He took one more big breath and tilted his face to the sky, “Heimdal! Umm… open the Bifrost. Please?” The last part was tacked on as an afterthought. Were you supposed to polite in these sorts of situations? He had no idea. The guy was going to transport him across the universe in a magic beam of light. That seemed like the sort of thing that deserved a please and thank you. But then again, maybe it was rude to thank someone for something they had already offered to do...

His internal monologue was cut off when he was swept up in a swirl of light. It was just like he had remembered it to be. Meaning, it was highly unpleasant. It was like being stretched out over an unfathomable distance and then thrown across a field.

When Jack landed, he immediately collapsed, feeling like a bowl of jelly that had been splattered on the walls. He groaned and rolled over, silently wishing for his own departure from this existence.

When he looked up, Heimdal was smiling down at him slightly, his golden eyes twinkling with silent laughter.

“Young Jack, That is quite possibly the only time. I have ever had someone ask politely for me to open the Bifrost.” He said in his deep, kind voice.

Jack blushed up to the roots of his white hair. He felt the frost cracking on his face and pushed himself up onto shaky limbs. He laughed awkwardly and scrambled for his staff, unsure how to respond to the statement.

Heimdal chuckled at him softly. Jack, unsure if he should be indignant or happy, laughed with him and started backing out of the Bifrost-portal-area-thingy (he really had no idea what it was called. He should probably ask) waving awkwardly at Heimdal and stuttering out a goodbye, before flying out as fast as he could. He heard Heimdal chuckling behind him.

* * *

After that, Jack visited Heimdal a lot. He loved the stories he had to tell; great tales of heroes he had seen with his own eyes, but never met. And he listened. He listened whenever he wanted to talk about the things that anyone else wouldn’t have bothered with. It made Jack feel like he cared. And it felt nice.

Heimdal also put up with his painfully awkward ways and never laughed when he asked strange questions.

It wasn’t long before he was bringing him food at every meal, because he had asked him when he ate and he said that he didn’t often. Jack had been shocked. He knew Heimdal wasn’t messing with him. Heimdal was always honest. It wasn’t as if the lack of food would kill Heimdal - Asgardians needed very little food; they were like Jack in that way- it was more like a luxury to eat every day. But Jack, who had spent the last 30 years surviving on the things other people didn’t want, thought that it was unfair that he would get less than everyone else, so every morning and every night, he brought him something to eat and sat and talked with him. Hemdal never said anything, be Jack was pretty sure he appreciated it. He didn’t throw him out, at least, and that was good enough for Jack.

But it wasn’t just Heimdal that he met. Jack soon discovered that most Asgardians couldn’t see him. Just like humans. Loki theorized that he had only been able to see him because he was saturated with magic to a point that he was able to see magical beings of all types. Heimdal could see everything, so it wasn’t exactly surprising that he could see Jack from the start. But all the other Asgardians couldn’t. Just like Odin, they passed through him and never knew he was there. But, unlike humans, it turned out that, to see him, they didn’t actually need to believe in him. They just had to acknowledge the idea that there may be something there. Jack figured that it would be much easier to manage that, as no one had yet come to believe in Jack Frost.

    The next thing Loki did after coming up with this theory, was drag a very unwilling Jack off to introduce him to Thor. **  
**

* * *

Jack stood nervously next to Loki. In truth, Jack was almost hiding behind Loki. He would have shamelessly hid behind him completely, had he not been relatively sure Loki would strangle him if he did.

Jack was relatively sure that something was going to go very wrong. See, the plan was to have a nice, calm conversation with Thor, introducing him to the idea of belief based spirits and then telling him about Jack after he had a bit of time to let that sink in. But Jack had that feeling again. Like some mysterious enemy was going to jump out at him and try to drag him away to wherever it hid in the shadows. The last time he had that feeling, he ended up getting stuck with Loki. He was fairly sure that that counted as validation of the accuracy of the feeling.

“Brother,” Loki said in a bland tone, “there is a young boy standing next to me. He is a spirit and you can simply not see him.”

It was about that point that Jack started panicking. Aparently, there was no plan after all.

Thor laughed a big, belly shaking laugh that spoke of many before it, “BROTHER! Have you taken leave of your senses? There is no one but us and father here.”

Loki sighed in a long suffering way and said, “He exists. I am perfectly within my senses, and father can confirm his presence.”

Thor’s brows furrowed and he looked over at Odin, a questioning expression on his face. Odin only nodded, a slight smile gracing his lips.

Thor looked back at Loki and his eyes widened. He let out a strangled yell of surprise and Jack deemed then a good time to run away. He flung his staff in Thor’s direction, and tried to fly away, before Loki caught him by the foot and dragged him back with apparent ease. Jack continued with half-hearted attempts to get away, but he knew that there was really no hope. When he heard Thor’s booming laughter, he set his feet on the ground again, and hesitantly turned to face the enormous man.

Jack smiled wider and started to laugh with Thor. He heard Loki make a vague noise of what was probably disgust and walk away. Jack ignored him, chuckling a bit.

Thor’s laughter trailed off and he looked at Jack, saying, “Ignore my brother, young friend. He is simply of a bitter temperament.”

Jack grinned and nodded, saying, “Yeah. I got that impression.”

Thor laughed again and grabbed Jack’s arm, dragging him towards the doors. “Come friend! I must tell you of my adventures!”

* * *

After that, it was just a matter of picking and choosing who to tell about him. Thor had been all for telling all of Asgard about Jack. He was strongly of the opinion that Jack shouldn’t have to go unseen again. Loki thought that knowledge of him should be highly restricted. After he stated that opinion, Jack wouldn’t communicate him in any way besides glaring for a solid thirty minutes.

But in the end, Odin made the final decision. He decided that it would be best to not tell the whole of Asgard of his existence, but to have some people know of him would probably be best.

Jack was then introduced to some essential people. The majority of which, were The Lady Sif and the Warriors Three. **  
**

 

* * *

 

Jack was once again hiding behind someone. This time, it wasn’t Loki. It was Thor. Mostly because Loki had threatened to eviscerate him if he tried to ‘use me as an agent to your cowardice’ again. In his words. Jack was also hiding from Loki.

See, in theory, these people would have relatively easy time of seeing him. If it had worked for Thor, it should work for them. But the last time Loki had laid something out for Jack like that, he had been lying so completely it was almost funny. Jack figured he had a decent reason for not trusting Loki in these matters. Maybe Loki had fixed it so that Thor could see him and no one else could. Yes, definitely better to hide behind Thor’s substantial form and not test any of these theories.  

“Friends!” Thor boomed, “I have news! There is another inhabitant of the castle!”

The woman, Sif, tilted her head, “What is their calling?”

The two men spoke at the same time as her, all of them yelling out simultaneously.

One, who was bigger than the others, though not by much, and had a long bushy beard and happy eyes (Volstagg, he thought), yelled out, “Do they bring food?”

The other, was a man with golden hair and blue eyes that smiled in a way that might have been charming, had it not been rather similar to a shark in Jack’s eyes, said,, “Are they a Lady?” He was pretty sure his name was Fandral.

They all blinked and glanced at each other. Jack snorted quietly at them. Did they do that often?

“My friends. It is a young boy.” Thor said, smile still firmly in place. Jack inwardly groaned. He would need to explain that he was immortal and was over the age of thirty. But that would come later.

Fandral’s and Volstagg’s faces fall and Sif glares at them. Hogun just stood there and watched Thor.

“Yes. A boy. And he is in the room with us!” Thor laughs and grins at them, obviously delighted.

They all frown at him doubtfully. Then Sif turns to Loki, who had been watching all of this with a sly smile on his face, “Loki. Does he speak the truth? Is there truly a boy in our presence?”

Loki nods, smile still in place. Jack thought he would have looked nice if he hadn’t looked like he was going to blow something up. Jack wasn’t actually against explosions in any personal way. Jack himself had been the perpetrator of many small explosions. He really liked when he could get the sound to resonate and that little smoky mushroom cloud. But in the short time that he had known him, he had surmised that Loki is not one to do things by halves. And the whole point of setting a fun explosion is just ruined it somebody dies. He’s pretty sure that any explosions with Loki as their source are going to kill someone.

At that point, Thor flicked him in that back of the head and snapped Jack out of his internal monologue.  Jack pulled his attention away from Loki to see Sif and the Warriors Three staring at him in wonder. Volstagg’s mouth was hanging open.

A strangled noise escapes Jack and he flails around for a few seconds. He is entirely unused to having so many eyes on him and now that he is aware of it, it feels as if ants are crawling all over his skin. This had been a terrible idea, and if he died from shock, he was laying the blame solely on Loki.

    After a bit, Jack unclenched from his flailing state and lowered his arms from their position around his face. When he looked around they were all in various states of amusement at his expense, with Volstagg grinning like a madman alongside Thor and Sif and Fandral smiling slightly. Hogun was watching him, and impassive look on his face. Jack was going to assume that was how he always looked.

    Oddly, their amusement at his expense reassured him and he began to relax. His phantom killer had yet to take him, and he was hesitantly optimistic about this situation.

* * *

Sif and Jack ended up getting along great, though they could never have conversations anywhere near the Warriors Three or Thor (Loki always left when they started talking), or the others started making lewd comments about Sif stealing his innocence .

Jack made it his personal goal to make Hogun actually smile. He had come pretty close, he was sure. If he’s not mistaken, he almost drew a chuckle from him on one memorable occasion. But he was still working on it. He was confident that he would succeed eventually, no matter how long it took.

Soon, he was spending almost as much of his time in Asgard as in Midgard. The only reason he didn’t spend more time in Asgard than in Midgard, was that he was the embodiment of winter. He had to be there to spread it. It wasn’t as if it didn’t snow without him there, but he was sort of a mediator. Left unsupervised, winter would never end and would be horribly harsh. He’s pretty sure that happened once before, when a winter spirit died and there was no one to take over the job for a very long time. Old Man Winter called it the Ice Age. The end of that period was when Old Man Winter came in and took over. Jack had just replaced Old Man Winter. He wanted to retire. And at his age, Jack thought he deserved it. The guy must have dealt with centuries worth of snow goblins. Jack couldn’t imagine that. it must have been awful. Jack had only been around thirty years and he was already sick of them. He had met a couple of the snow sprites, but they offered no hope for winter spirits in his mind. They were mean little suckers. With sharp fingers and a wicked sense of humor. They liked to tie people to trees and leave them there for days. He was working on conditioning them to be nicer.

Jack had to explain all of this to Loki, who was curious as to why he didn’t spend all of his time on Asgard.

 

* * *

 

   

Someone slammed Jack into a wall. Jack wasn’t exactly sure why someone decided to do so, as he was relatively sure that he had been well behaved in recent times. Sure, there was that one incident with the cake yesterday, but no one who knew about him was involved, so he didn’t see how it could become an issue.

Jack made a noise that he hoped expressed his ample displeasure, and tried to kick at his captor. Said captor avoided his attacks and turned him around so that he could see them. Loki stood before him, a cold expression on his face. Jack had a very health fear of Loki, and possessed the knowledge that Loki could, and would, rip him apart with just a pinky finger. Don’t get him wrong. He loved Loki. He really did. He was just absolutely terrifying.

Because of this healthy fear, or perhaps in spite of it, the first thing out of his mouth was, “I didn’t do it.”

In hindsight, this might not have been the best of choices, but known for his excellent filter Jack was not. Loki made a sound approximating a growl and said, “Why do you spend so long in Midgard?”

Jack will forever deny the noise that escaped him at that point, “Wait. What?!”

“Are we not sufficient company? Do you wish more than what we offer?” Loki growled.

Jack shook his head frantically, “No! No! Jeez-” Jack flailed as much as he could in his confined position before saying, “I have to be there! Winter needs me! We can’t have eternal winter! And-” Jack searched for something else to say, “The snow goblins! Who would they try to kill without me there? And the sprites! We- were still working on behavior!”

Loki stared at him for a long time before looking away. He had an interesting expression on his face; somewhere between being mollified and aggravated. It looked almost painful.

“Loki?” It was said with hesitance on Jack’s part. He was wary of making this situation worse than it already was. Though he wasn’t really sure what this situation was exactly.

Loki looked back at him and said quietly, “Are we not enough?”

Jack shook his head mutely, then said, completely truthfully, “No. No. You’re more than enough. You’re… perfect.”

Loki looked away again, before turning away and heading for his rooms. Jack stood there for a moment, more than a little shell shocked by the whole experience. Eventually, Jack followed after Loki, letting his feet lead him down the familiar path to Loki’s quarters. When he reached the door, he found it open, so he slipped inside, pulling it shut behind him. Loki sat on his bed, a book in hand, staring at the wall.

Jack just sat next to him and waited. Eventually, Loki said, “Do not leave.” He turned to Jack with peircing eyes, “ You can be forgiven your periodic absences. One must permit the wrangling of winter. But you shall not leave us entirely.” Loki looked away, back to the wall, “That, I will not permit.”

Jack only nodded, not possessed of the words to express what he was feeling. Loki nodded as well, seeming to make some sort of agreement with himself. Then he got up and walked out of the room again. Unsure of what else to do, Jack followed.

* * *

Twenty years after Loki had found him at the lake, Jack lounged in a chair, his feet thrown up over the arm. He was laughing at something Volstagg had said, when it suddenly just hit him that he was happy. He was so achingly happy here, and he never wanted to leave. He had friends here, and he felt like he belonged here more than he ever had anywhere else.

Really, Jack wasn’t sure why it was so surprising that he was happy here. It wasn’t like he had anything waiting for him back on Midgard. Only a job that needed doing and a bunch of cruel sprites. Here, he had people. He he had Thor, and Loki. And Sif and the Warriors Three. He had Odin and Frigga. At this point, he didn’t think it was amis to call them his family. They had taken him in when no one else wanted him.

Jack looked up when Thor tapped him on the arm. He nodded and laughed, even though he hadn’t heard a word of what had been said. That seemed to satisfy Thor, who looked away and continued talking to Sif, but Loki continued to watch him. Jack smiled at him reassuringly, and Loki nodded and looked away. Jack smiled wider and tuned back into the conversation, content to be in the presence of his family. **  
**

* * *

    Three days after his realization, when Odin asked him if he would like to officially be a part of their family, he said yes.

    And so it was that Jack Frost was gifted the name of Jokul Frosti, and he was quietly initiated into the family of Odin. His name appeared on all versions of the Asgardian family tree, much to the confusion of the general population, which Jack delighted in. And for the first time, he was happy - so achingly happy - that he came out of the ice that day.

 ****  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. I hope you like the product of my mind. Comments and kudos would be appreciated. I look forward to any criticism or advice that you wonderful people can offer me! I have hopes of getting the next chapter up sooner!


	3. In Which Jack Loves Teeth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack Just wants a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Baby Tooth is one of my favorite characters in the RoTG fandom, and so of course I need to give her her own chapter.  
> Chapter Warnings: Temporary Character Death, Teensy Weensy bit of Blood

Jack lighted down on the roof of a house in some town in eastern Asia. He wasn’t sure exactly where he was, nor did he particularly care. Loki said that that kind of inattentiveness was going to get him killed. Jack didn’t agree with that sentiment, especially seeing as he was a major winter spirit and other, lesser spirits tended to avoid him. And it wasn’t like there was anyone else out there to hurt him. But Loki tended to forget this fact. Frequently. He also tended to hover over Jack’s shoulder under the pretense of ‘protecting him from his own idiocy’. Whatever. Jack knew it was just Loki showing affection in his own, twisted way.

Loki kept trying to get him to practice his and Frigga’s type of magic and he kept refusing. He didn’t want to learn. He already had his ice; his frost and his Wind. Why would he need anything else? But he had consented to getting trained in the more physical pursuits by Loki and Thor, along with Sif and the Warriors Three.

That fact, along with being assured that nothing would happen on Midgard, was the only reason that Loki even allowed him to come to Midgard to spread his snow. Which was completely irrational, because without Jack, Midgard would be plunged into an eternal winter. Jack wasn’t sure whether to be smug about having spotted Loki’s serial killer ways or upset about having them turned on him. He was absolutely sure that Loki’s stalker tendencies were the product of his inability to express emotion in a normal manner.

In the one hundred years that had passed since he had become a member of the Asgardian royal family, surprisingly little had happened. Sure, he had been learning how to become a spirit of winter, bringer of frost and tamer of storms and all that, but there was only so much time he could spend in those pursuits. He had ended up with a surprising amount of free time, and very little to do with it. He often wished he was allowed to reveal his existence to others in Asgard, just so he could have some more people to talk to.

Jack sighed and looked up at the moon, as he had done a million times before, silently asking the same question he always did. He never got an answer, but he still asked. After one hundred and thrity thrice damned years, he had still yet to figure out why he had risen from the ice. It wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful that he did. No, if he hadn’t come to life when he did, then he would never have met Loki, and he would never regret that day. It gave him a family. But sometimes, he still wondered. Wondered what it was like to be believed in. Not just by one’s own family, but by others. Children.

No one ever saw him. It was like he didn’t exist on Midgard. No child ever saw him. He’d always loved children, those here, on Midgard, or back home. When he was in Asguard, he would secretly help out with the kids. Because of Asgardians extended lives, their children stayed children a lot longer. He loved to spend time with them, even unseen as he was. Asguards number of snow days had increased drastically since he had become a part of the family.

And as he looked up at the moon now, staff clutched to his chest, the hurt was still there. Fresh and sharp. Sometimes, he wondered if he was doing something wrong. If there was some secret test he had to pass, and then everyone would see him. He just needed to have someone outside of his family to talk to. Someone to be his friend. He couldn’t be on Asguard all the time. Jack spent months, sometimes years, away, tending winter, and fall. He needed **_someone_** to talk to during those times. Sure, he had Wind. He talked to her all the time. But it just wasn’t the same as talking to a **_corporeal_** person. One that he could **_see_**.

He sighed and looked down, scuffing his bare feet against the frost that had crept across the roof. He knew that there were other spirits. They were able to see him. But he had yet to meet a spirit that wasn’t either incredibly stupid, malicious and trying to kill him, or some combination of the two. Besides Mother Nature of course. But he only saw her when she had special assignments for him. He’d heard of something called the Guardians, who were supposedly the most powerful spirits besides Mother Nature but he'd never even come close to seeing them.

It was then, that Jack felt a very small **_something_** slam into the back of his head. Very hard. Jack let out a muffled, strangled cry and pitched forward. He usually had amazing balance. Phenomenal actually. However, being unexpectedly smashed into by unknown small something’s, tended to throw people off balance.

Luckily, Wind caught him. She lowered Jack gently to the ground, whispering reassuringly in his ears. Jack thanked her silently, then looked for the cause of his sudden fall. Jack glanced up, and when that revealed nothing, he looked around at his feet. He searched the ground for a while, before he noticed an odd squeaking in to hood of his cape.

    Jack blinked and reached behind him. His fingers found something small, a bit bigger than a golf ball, and covered in feathers. It was tangled up in the hood that hung across his back, and wiggling madly.

With careful fingers, he freed the small feathery something from his hood and brought it around to his face. Jack blinked again. There in his hands, was a small, slightly disheveled fairy. The fairy shook her tiny head and ran small hands over her entire body, smoothing out shimmering green and gold feathers as she went.

When she was finished with that task, the fairy looked up at Jack and blinked owlishly at him with disproportionally large, multi-toned eyes.

Jack burst into peals of laughter, lifting a gentle finger towards the fairy, “You knocked me over? But you’re so small.”

The tiny fairy cocked her head at Jack and seemed to consider his words. Then she nodded and chirped in a happy way, and smiled at Jack. Jack laughed again, wondering how many people had said the same thing to the fairy. She really was quite small, fitting easily into the palm of his hand with room to spare.

Jack smiled at the fairy, “I’m Jack. Jack Frost. You?”

The fairy shook her head and chirped once.

Jack frowned. “I’m not Jack Frost?”

The fairy shook her head and chirped again.

Suddenly, Jack understood, “You don’t have a name?”

The little fairy nodded vigorously. Jack found himself frowning. Didn’t have a name? Even he had woken up with a name, even if that was the only thing he’d had. It was something he considered essential to the identity of a person.

“Well we’ll just have to fix that, won’t we?”

The fairy looked confused. Jack laughed at her, “You. You need a name.”

The fairy only blinked at Jack again, face obviously showing confusion.

“Everybody needs a name,” Jack said, “So what’ll it be? You’re one of the Tooth Fairy’s helpers right?”

Jack thought she must be. He knew of only one spirit that had fairies like this. And that was the Tooth Fairy. She used them to help her collect all the children’s teeth. The fairy confirmed his suspicions by nodding so vigorously she fell over, sending Jack into new reels of laughter.

When he finally stopped chuckling, Jack moved the fairy to one hand, tapping his chin thoughtfully, “Soooooo. How ‘bout Baby Tooth?” Jack then snorted at his own suggestion, hanging his head and releasing a little groan of disappointment, “I know. Not very creative. Sorry.”

But Jack heard the fairy start chirping furiously and when he looked up, the little ball of feathers was fluttering above his palm and shaking her head.

Jack frowned, “What? Is Baby Tooth really that bad?” He hadn’t thought it was that awful… Just not very creative. Personally, he thought there could be worse things than Baby Tooth. Fluffy for example. That would be pretty bad. But maybe he was just more clueless than he thought. Who was he to judge?

But the fairy only shook her head harder.

Jack frowned again, “You **_do_** like Baby Tooth.” He asked a little hopefully. The fairy nodded viciously.

Jack laughed, smiling, “Okay. Baby Tooth it is.”

The newly dubbed Baby Tooth chirped happily and settled herself back in Jack hand. Jack smiled at Baby Tooth. It seemed, that he had finally made a new friend.

* * *

 

Over the course of the next few years, Jack continued to meet up with Baby Tooth. It turned out that, as a Mini Tooth Faerie, Baby Tooth had a rather demanding schedule. Jack had never really thought about how the Mini Faeries lived their lives, and he felt pretty bad about that. Especially now that he had been able to get to know the little lady that was Baby Tooth. She was constantly flying around the globe and collecting teeth for the big Tooth Fairy, who apparently lived in Asia. Luckily, they all seemed rather happy with their lives, and Baby Tooth could twitter on for hours about how much she loved collecting the teeth.

Because of this, Baby Tooth could only see Jack every so often, but she did so as often as she could. As Jack spent over half of his time on earth, he was almost always there when Baby Tooth was let on one of her rare breaks. Jack once said that Baby Tooth didn’t have to waste her sparse free time on him, only to have Baby Tooth beat him over the head with a quarter. That little fairy could hit hard when she wanted to. She had scolded Jack for ever thinking that he was a waste of time. Jack hadn’t said anything, but he had appreciated it.

It wasn’t long before they were best friends. Jack jokingly called Baby Tooth his little feathery golf ball. Baby Tooth hadn’t objected, surprisingly, and the name had stuck. Loki thought he was going crazy. But, honestly, Jack was pretty sure that Loki thought he was absolutely insane 90% of the time. Jack was pretty ok with that, honestly, seeing as Loki was still in the habit of expressing affection through stalking and glares. Though, Jack had to admit, he was an awesome gift giver.

* * *

 

Jack was on Asgard, on one was one of his off periods. What that really meant was that one of the lesser winter spirits was feeling inadequate, and had approached Jack to ask for a chance to his job. It happened once every few forty to fifty years, and it gave Jack a rare chance to completely relax as well as teach the lesser spirits a bit of a lesson. It kept them away from him for a few years, at least. But it was one of Baby Tooth’s days off and Jack was rushing back to Midgard to meet her at their established gathering place. It was actually more like a hole in the ground in which Jack had made an ice chair and bed and Baby Tooth had made a little nest of feathers. They were all iridescent and had a green-blue pattern on them. Jack had tried to snitch a few a couple times, but every time he got close, Baby Tooth somehow materialized and scolded him fiercely. For someone who was the size of the average field mouse, she was vicious when she wanted to be. Jack kept trying, and he would until he succeed. They were just too pretty to pass up. He wanted to braid them into his hair.

Jack waived at Heimdal as he passed, flying into the Bi-frost, and he heard him laughing behind him as he was whipped across the cosmos.

When he arrived in Midgard, he fell face first into the ground. He grumbled as he picked himself up. 120 years and he still hadn’t gotten the hang of that. He doubted he ever would at this point. He looked himself over, taking in the damage. His white shirt was smeared with mud and his cloak was speckled with the same. He sighed and froze his clothing off, chipping off most of it, and giving up on the remaining dirt. He didn’t mind the dirt so much himself, but every time he came back from Midgard with filthy or destroyed clothing, Frigga gave him the scolding of his life, and then handed him over to Loki for re-outfitting. Which, in his opinion, was worse. Loki was a freak when it came to cleanliness and hated when any of his family got dirty, especially Jack, whom he believed was not responsible enough to be on his own for extended periods of time.

With a final sweep over his clothes, Jack took to the air, laughing with The Wind. He felt it when he crossed the barrier into fey territory. It kept mortals and those immortals not approved by the fey out. It was sort of like jelly rolling over him, and then he was on the other side, and the air had a tangible charge. Jack wasn’t technically allowed to be in this area. At least not according to the Fae. But his status as an elemental, a powerful sprite especially, made him a sort of grey area; both Fae and not, and thus gave him passage through the barrier.

The Wind dropped him off in a large clearing, full of light blue flowers. Jack leaned down and plucked one from the ground, blowing on it and watching it fall apart into the frost that it was made of. These things were a favorite of Jacks, that he had learned to conjure early on.

Jack looked up again and started walking over to the hole in the ground that hid his makeshift home on Midgard. He spotted the edge of the hole soon after he started walking and dropped in when he reached it.

He was greeted by a squeaking faerie. Jack laughed at Baby Tooth. Over the years, he had gotten better and better at interpreting what Baby Tooth was saying. She may not use actual **_words_** , per-se. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have things to say. Right now, Baby Tooth was once again telling him off for his timing. Baby Tooth seemed to have this sort of internal clock, or otherwise must have some sort of super-tiny device that told her the time. Jack wasn’t quite sure which one it was, and he wasn’t particularly inclined to ask. She’d probably just scold him more. Baby Tooth chirped waspishly in his ear, obviously not pleased with Jacks lack of seriousness at what Baby Tooth obviously thought was a very vexing situation.

Jack only laughed at her again, reaching up with nimble fingers to pluck her from where she had settled on his shoulder. Baby Tooth nuzzled into his hand happily. Jack grinned lopsidedly at her, “Forgive me?”

Baby Tooth considered him for a moment before nodding slowly, as if to say _‘Ya. I guess.’_

“So why do you come on time if you know I’m just gonna be late?” Jack asked.

Baby tooth opened her mouth, undoubtedly ready to chirp out an answer, but she froze and stared behind Jack. Jack frowned at her, “Baby Tooth, what-“

Before he could finish his sentence, Baby Tooth had shot over his head. There was a small thump and a muffled squeak.

Jack whipped around, eyes wide, to find a summer fae hovering there. He leered at Jack, dry air crackling around him. And there, on the ground, was Baby Tooth. She was smoking slightly. She looked almost charred. Jack growled and practically threw his staff at the sprite, he put so much force into the motion, flinging ice and magic at him. He only cackled and flew out of the way, waving a hand cheerily at jack before disappearing.

Jack blinked at his absence. Just before gasping and whirling around. He flew forward, falling to his knees. He gently scooped the small fairy into his hands, trying his best not to jostle her. Baby Tooth’s shining green feathers were blackened in some places. She was shivering, as if she was cold, and her tiny blue and purple eyes were half closed.

“Shhh. You’re gonna be ok. You’re gonna be ok. I promise.” Jack cooed. Jack wasn’t sure if he was trying to comfort himself or Baby Tooth.

Baby Tooth smiled at him weakly, moving one of her tiny hands to grasp his thumb. Jacks hands felt wet. When Baby Tooth moved her hand, there was a small smear of blood.

It was a wide spread belief that spirits could not die. That was incorrect. While they were blessed with eternal youth, they could be killed. It was harder to kill a stronger spirit, like Jack. But a lesser one like Baby Tooth… He wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t know many in the Fae kingdom who would be willing to help him, and those that were, were either wanderers, who could be anywhere right now, or the Queen, who would be just as likely to turn him away as offer assistance.

Jack used one finger to stroke Baby Tooth’s feathers, trying to smooth them out like he always did. She hated it when her feathers where messy. Baby Tooth grasped his finger, pulling it to her tiny chest. Baby Tooth closed her eyes and let out a little breath. She didn’t give any more.

That was about when Jack started panicking. Jack wasn’t very good under pressure. At least pressure that involved problems he didn’t know how to solve. This most definitely qualified a problem, and he had absolutely no idea how to solve it.

He smoothed a finger over Baby Tooth again and tried to think of what to do. He started when drops started to fall around him, he looked up, realizing that not only was he crying, but the cavern of ice was melting around them. He clutched Baby Tooth to his chest, careful not to squish her and stared at the ceiling.

Abruptly, he started sobbing. He screamed at the ceiling, wanting nothing more than to beat it into submission. Anything to make this aching feeling in his chest go away.

He’s not sure how long he screamed, but when he looked down again, his throat was sore and the cavern was almost completely gone. The pain in his chest was growing, becoming almost physical. Jack just sat there, feeling numb, until he realized that the pain _was_ physical now. And hot.

He yanked his hands away from his chest, feeling a blistering heat coming from them. What he saw made absolutely no sense. Baby Tooth’s limp form was glowing with a white light, so bright he had to squint to avoid being blinded.

The light cut off as suddenly as it had started, as did the burning, and Baby Tooth started wiggling. Jack gasped and almost dropped her, but caught himself in time.

“Baby Tooth?” Jack breathed, not daring to believe his eyes.

The fairy blinked and slowly nodded, as if confused by the turn of events. Jack laughed, slightly hysterically, and clutched the fairy to his chest again, relishing in the sensation of her hugging him back as best she could with her tiny arms. . He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he was very, very glad it had.

* * *

Jack stood in the middle of his designated Bi-frost operations field. Since neither he nor Baby Tooth had any idea what was going on, he had decided it was probably best if they went to someone who did. And since most of the spirits on Midgard hated or greatly disliked him, that left one option. Loki. Or Frigga. Depending on who he found first. Baby Tooth had spent a couple hours freaking out over the fact that she had died, and could not apparently no longer feel her bond to the big Tooth Fairy. And Jack had needed some time to freak out too, trying to deal with the fact that he had seen his best friend die and be resurrected in the space of a couple minuets. So it was most likely that they would find Loki. Frigga went on a long walk about now on every third day.

“Heimdal! Open the Bi-frost please!” He yelled to the sky. There was a time when he would have been incredibly embarrassed by this. But he had gotten past that. Mostly. It still felt a bit weird to scream at the sky, essentially asking it to open, but it wasn’t like anyone could see him doing it.

They were enveloped in a brilliant blue light that sent them shooting upwards. The first time he had done this, he had compared it to spinning through the universe at incredible speeds. He stood by that analogy.

His feet hit the ground, and he stumbled slightly, The Wind catching his fall.

Straitening up, he dusted herself off and smiled at Heimdal, “Hello Heimdal! Thank you for the Bi-frost!” He never had been sure if there was some other way to refer to traveling by Bi-frost. Like you didn’t call using a horse to travel traveling by horse. You called it riding. But no one ever corrected him, so he was left to assume that there was no other term for it.

Heimdal smiled gently at him, “Jack. It is good to see you. And your small friend. You can come out little one. You will not be done harm.”

The last part was addressed, not to Jack, but in the direction of the back of his shoulder. Baby Tooth peeked out and squeaked a little greeting. She seemed to be blushing.

Jack laughed weakly and flew forward, giving Heimdal a hug and then flying out the door, yelling over his shoulder, “Thanks Heimdal! I’ll be back later!”

When he turned back, he had to dodge out of the way of one of the massive columns that supported the Rainbow Bridge. Baby Tooth let out a tiny squeal of laughter. Jack laughed with her as he twirled around the Rainbow Bridge, Baby Tooth riding on his shoulder.

Jack landed lightly in front of the massive castle doors. He touched one finger to them and ran it across them over the lines of the patterns covering the doors. The door creaked open a tiny bit, just enough for him to fit through comfortably. Loki and Frigga had charmed the doors a long time ago to open at his touch in a certain pattern. He wasn’t strong enough to open the doors even a little bit on his own, lacking the super strength that all Asgardians possessed. And since the guards were unable to see him, he needed some way to be able to get in.

Jack flew down the massive halls, towards Loki’s study. He flipped and turned to avoid people. It wasn’t like he would actually run into them, but he never like the feeling of being walked through. It was kind of like being whisked apart and shoved back together.

He swept through the open doorway to the library, heading for Loki’s designated corner. He was there so often, the Librarian had just set up little walls for him so he could have privacy.

Jack landed lightly in front of him, his feet frosting over the ground near him. Loki looked up at him and nodded at him, with a small upturn of his lips that may have been a smile. It meant he cared. Or, at least, that’s what Jack liked to think it meant.

“Jack. I was under the impression you would not be returning until months pass.” He said. He sounded like he was chastising him, vaguely happy to see him, and curious all at the same time.

Jack nodded jerkily, trying to figured out how to say this.

“What is it Jack?” he asked seriously.

“Well it’s…. Oh God! Here!” Jack then reached into his hood and plucked Baby Tooth out of the back of his shirt, where she had tucked herself and was hiding quietly. Baby Tooth squeaked indignantly, but settled herself into Jack’s hands none the less.

Loki frowned at Baby Tooth, “I fail to understand how a small bird-like creature relates to anything.” He looked up and glared at Jack, saying, “You will not have interrupted me for no reason, I’m sure.” The tone of his words implied that no other outcome would be acceptable.

Jack sighed, “Well… She was dead. And then she wasn’t, and now she can’t feel the Big Tooth, and I don’t know what to do.” As he spoke, his words got faster and faster, until his words were blurring together.

Loki blinked, which was as close to a shocked expression as he ever got, “Pardon?”

Jack repeated his story, trying not to speak at light-speed.

At the end of it, Loki scrunched up his eyebrows and gave Jack and Baby Tooth a considering look. Finally, he stood up and gently lifted Baby Tooth out of Jack’s hands and examined her thoroughly. Even chanting a small spell under his breath that Jack didn’t even vaguely recognize.

At the end of all of this, he only sighed and looked at Jack, his face unreadable as always.

This was all worrying Jack greatly.

Eventually, he started to speak, “The nearest thing I can guess is that some surge of outside energy gave her body it needed to heal.” He looked speculative for a moment, the asked, “You said she was feeling the absence of a bond? Of what nature was it?”

Jack was silent for a while, trying to dredge the answer out of his mind. Finally, he said, “ It was… a master to a bunch of smaller workers. Not like slaves, but like a big family that all listen to the head.”

Loki nodded slowly, bringing Baby Tooth up to his face and looking her right in the eyes. He stayed that way for a while; neither of them moved for the duration of the event. When he looked away, Baby Tooth shook her head a little, looking confused and a bit dizzy.

“Her death triggered the breaking of her bond with her ‘master’.” Loki waved a hand slightly, saying, “The ambient energy released by that must have collected again and jumpstarted her back into life.”

He smiled without amusement, “Her magic has consumed the bond and used it to support her. The magical bond must have been connected to this little fairy for a very long time, to have collected that much energy. Most likely, the bond has existed for the majority of her life, if not all of it.”

Jack gaped at him. That was… wow. Loki was **_good_**.

“Thanks Loki,” Jack said slowly, “but I think Baby Tooth and I need to…” He struggled for a word to describe what they needed to do, “Talk.” It didn’t really accurately describe anything. But Loki seemed to understand. His lips upturned to slightest bit again, and he nodded.

Jack walked out of the Library. He wasn’t feeling up to floating. Baby Tooth sat on his shoulder, probably feeling the same way. Jack led the way to his room. It was actually the room that he had been kept in when he first came to Asguard. It wasn’t in use and he already knew where it was, so it had been the most logical choice.

When he came to the door, he pushed it open and slipped inside. Jack sat down on his bed, flopping onto his back. He stared at the dots on the ceiling for a very long time. It was only when he felt a small warm, feathery form settle on his hands, which where clenched in his lap, that he finally looked up. Baby Tooth was looking at him, concern in her tiny eyes.

After a while, Jack sighed, “Baby Tooth… I- I’m sorry. I’m sure that the Big Tooth will still let you do your job. You just have to go explain it to her, is all.”

Jack was damned if he was going to let Baby Tooth give up her job. Not when she loved it so much. Baby Tooth was his friend. He wanted her to be as happy as she could be.

Baby Tooth frowned heavily, before fluttering up to Jack’s face. She placed one tiny hand on his cheek and stared into his eyes. Well… one eye. She couldn’t look into both at once at such close range.

Jack laughed in a watery way, trying to wipe away the tears that were now trickling down his face. He cupped Baby Tooth in his hands and pulled her close to him. He didn’t really want Baby Tooth to leave, but he had a feeling it was going to happen anyways.

* * *

As it turned out, Baby Tooth did end up leaving, but not for very long. She went and talked to the Big Tooth, who, as Jack predicted was very understanding of the whole situations, as well as extremely concerned for her Mini Faerie. What surprised Jack, however, was what Baby Tooth did after that. She told the Big Tooth that she didn’t want to be working as much. Now that she didn’t have a bond to the Big Tooth, she was free to spend all of her time however she wanted.

Baby Tooth didn’t want to give up tooth collecting all together, but she said that she wanted to stay with Jack more. That he was more important than teeth. When she told him that she and the Big Tooth had worked out a new employment deal, where she was only working three days a week, and that she was going to spend the rest of it with Jack, he’d actually started crying.

He didn’t know what he had done to deserve her, but he was pretty sure that there was no other friend better than Baby Tooth. And he was so, so glad he had her.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok. So, you people should give me reviews. I would very much like to hear whatever opinions and criticism you can offer me. This story is in progress and I am in no way a professional. Updates will be sporadic, and chapters will likely be unread by any eyes other than mine. Just warning you.


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